Crucible

Novum Trilogy #1

by Moira Katson

“Six days ago, Benito Sandoval, formerly of the Fleet of Human Nations, took possession of the ship the SHN Minerva and led an unsanctioned attack against a human colony on the planet known as Guan-Yu. The SHN Minerva was destroyed in the attack and Sandoval and his crew are presumed dead. All have been charged with high treason. It is believed that there are no survivors of the attack.” –Official statement of the League of Human Nations, dated June 17, 3643

No species has ever stood against the Henth. Hunted to the brink of extinction, the Aireni are fleeing across the galaxy when they stumble across a weapon that can turn the tide, a living weapon with speed, strength, and brutal cleverness: a fragment of humanity on a long-forgotten planet. Believing themselves to be befriended by angels, the tiny tribe is bred, modified, and honed in their preparation for an encounter with the Henth, a force they know only as the Great Evil.

When the human fleet discovers what has been done, they send Admiral Benito Sandoval to recover the experiments for use in humanity’s wars. Instead, horrified by the desecration of his species, he launches an attack on the colony in an attempt to destroy it. The human fleet arrives too late, finding only rubble—and the cryptic warning of the lone Aireni survivor.

As humanity searches the stars for the Henth, they leave the ruined colony behind them. But the tribe is not dead, the weapon not destroyed. What has been left behind is a race of super-soldiers, endowed not only with speed and strength, but a fanatical belief in the power of the angels that brought both friendship and destruction. They have survived. They have hidden. And they know who their enemies are.

Genres: Science Fiction

346 pages, Paperback

First published April 23, 2014

About the author

I am a transplant to the frozen wastes of the midwest, learning to love fried food on a stick, hot dish, and the winters. Having recently bought a house, I am also learning everything from how to wire chandeliers to how best to paint a room. (Also, I spend too much time at Menard's.)

I have been writing since I was old enough to read, and I write on every scrap of paper I can get my hands on. In the meantime, I read - oh, I read so much! I like to read articles about science, about economics, about psychology and neuroscience and sociology... Some of my greatest character inspiration has come from true-life tales of people at the center of historical events, and some of it has come from the "what-ifs" that academic inquiry produces.

I encourage you to stop past my website for the latest news on my work! You can find print copies of my work on Amazon and CreateSpace, and my books are available for Kindle, Nook, and through all channels served by Smashwords!

Reviews

[Volpot · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars. Incoherent. Nothing makes sense or is believable

[Laura of Lurking · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally reviewed on LauraofLurking

I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for an unbiased review.

Strong language: None
Drugs: None
Violence: War/battle
Sexual content: None

This was a difficult novel for me to get into. In every chapter the point of view, and often the entire location and cast of characters present, would shift. Just as I would start to feel for a character they were gone from my spectrum. Looking at the table of contents it appeared as if many never reappeared, making the first half of the book hard to care about a character because I would soon lose them.

A large part of the problem I think was that while there were only three groups of characters (two sets of refugees and a spaceship's crew) according to my kindle each chapter took between 40 and 60 minutes to read, so it could be 2 hours of solid reading before I got back to the cliff hanger I left a particular group on. By that point I had lost some of the details of what was going on, and as they weren't repeated, we were just thrown straight back into the action, I felt lost.

But it wasn't all bad. The writing was good, it lacked emotion in places, but I blame most of this on the Royals being trained to have no emotion. Although it was already a fairly long book I would have liked more from the writing, showing me emotions, rather than telling, and more about the amazing scenery as most of these character had never left a castle before the story began, and now they were trekking through fields, beaches, mountains and more.

But it's not all bad…
Towards the end, especially the last chapter, I found myself smiling for no apparent reason. The plot finally felt like it pulled together. At the same time it felt like this was just a prologue for the other two books in the series.

Despite my overall reservations I would be interested in reading the next book in the series at some point. I hope, given that the writing fixed itself near the end that that trend would stay throughout the second book.

This book had a lot of highs, and a few too many lows. In spite of the warm fuzzies at the end I have to take the book as a whole and give it 3 stars

[David Bruns · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crucible opens with the city of Guan-Yu under attack by unknown, but human, assailants. 40,000 souls are annihilated and the city is covered in radiation to make it uninhabitable.

The inhabitants of Guan-Yu are pawns in an interstellar chess game. An alien race called the Aireni, set themselves up as “angels” over an agrarian human colony. Using the natives as breeding stock, the angels developed super-soldiers, calling them royals and setting them at the highest tier of the Aireni-imposed caste system. The royals are the Aireni’s weapon against the Great Evil, a mysterious entity that consumed the Aireni home world.

The League of Human Nations finds out about the Aireni super-soldiers. A rogue war hero, realizing the potential danger to his race, commandeers a ship and destroys Guan-Yu in a suicide mission. But the crafty Aireni have a contingency plan. They send out three groups of refugees from Guan-Yu to make a home in the wild and preserve the bloodline until the “angels” return. Together they will defeat the Great Evil.

In my opinion, what Katson does best is point of view. She buries her reader deep in the head of her characters, creating intense, emotionally developed narrators for her tale. Anchoring the action to the points of view of three different Guan-Yu refugees and one of the attackers, she hops from character to character, telling the same story multiple ways. Yeah, that’s right, she has four main characters—and she totally pulls it off.

A caution (and a whole paragraph of mixed metaphors): Crucible is a slow-burn. Katson doesn’t rush her story; this is a marathon, not a 5K. We’re not making beer here, people, we’re making brandy, and good brandy needs to be aged. While this book is a complete novel, Katson clearly intends to play out the larger story over the entire trilogy, so you will want to read these books in order.

And, when Book 2 is available, I shall.

Read Crucible. Highly recommended.

[Julie Kuhn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! I felt intrigued from the very beginning with the battle and attack on the planet! There's action, ships fighting, hand to hand combat, alien species, humans who are not human, intrigue, secrets upon secrets, betrayal and a softer side to the story with the people known as the "royals" experiencing human emotions for the first time. It's that old story of one culture and another having to come together in a crisis and work together to survive. In this case it's "the royals" and the humans against the makers of the Royals, the Aerini ( known as the angels), the humans who destroy their city and population, and "the Great Evil". The Great Evil is what the Aerini are terrified of and why they created the Royals; the rest of the human world has no idea about its existence until they attack this planet where the Aerini and the Royals reside. Now.....things have changed for everyone! The Great Evil won't stop until it's consumed everyone and everything! Can it be stopped?
This book is well written and edited. The beginning is all about setting the scene and emerging the reader in the story via action versus dialogue. So be patient at the beginning and allow the story to unfold, you'll be glad you did. This book is 348 pages of delightful storytelling. Definitely for adults and perhaps that older teen (18 or 19 yo) because of profanity and the loss of life at the beginning. I can't wait for the next book! I want to know what happens! :) Mira Matson pulls off another winner!

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the definitions of crucible is
: a place or situation in which concentrated forces interact to cause or influence change or development

This is very appropriate for this book.

It is an adventure with some scary overtones.This book will make you question things and wonder about the human race. I can hardly wait for the other books in this trilogy to come out.

I really enjoyed this book. Moira Katson is a talented writer.

[Alexes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Compelling Story

This is a terrific book that pulls you in from the first page. An exploration of two societies at different points in their evolution who collide with unexpected results, Crucible focuses more on the people than the hardware (though there is plenty of space ship stuff)—with stunning results. The language is sometimes dense, and the pacing isn’t rushed: two features I very much enjoyed in the work. Highly recommended for those who like substance with their adventure.

[Sydnie Macelroy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written prose, vibrant characters, but a bit thin on plot, which takes from 5 stars down to 4, still incredibly rare for a vanity published work. It needs a good proofreader, and the author has a bad habit tacking person-b's reaction onto person-a's dialog, which can be confusing and distracting. Over all, though, the negatives are minor. This is an excellent book, and I look forward to the rest of the trilogy!

[Nick]

Too slow for me, didn't like it. Supposed to be a space opera, but very little time devoted to space scenes. Plot seemed disjointed for at least the first 1/3 of the book